Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building

This afternoon I was rolling across 126th Street in Harlem. The traffic on 125 was brutally slow for a sunny day.

Upon nearing Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard or 7th Avenue I ogled the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building and pulled over to the curb and stepped out of the pick-up truck to take a photo of the tallest building in Harlem.

“You.”

A shout from behind.

“What?”

“Are you taking a photo?” A female security guard emerged from her cubby hole.

“Yes, I am.” I was a big fan of the brutalist architecture of the African-American architecture firm of Ifill, Johnson & Hanchard, which had also designed St. Martin’s Tower.

“Then you have to delete the photos.” The unsmiling woman was not kidding about this edict.

“I’m not a terrorist.”

“I don’t care who you are. I’m just doing my job. No photos means no photos, unless you want the PD to come down here.”

I hate the police.

“No, you don’t have to do that, but it’s a sunny day and I love this style of architecture.”

“Don’t mean shit to me.”

“Okay.” There was no sense in argument or sweet-talking. I deleted the photos and went on my way. I was a working man and in the words of Adam Clayton Powell Jr. “A man’s respect for law and order exists in precise relationship to the size of his paycheck.